Europe

Since its establishment in 1984, the Institute has been working actively with human rights in Europe. For more than 25 years, we have together with the Faculty of Law at Lund University offered the Master’s Programme in International Human Rights Law.

Since the end of the 1990s we have also been widely engaged in capacity development programmes supporting human rights change at institutions in Europe such as academic institutions, national human rights institutions (NHRIs), governmental and non-governmental institutions, as well as justice sector institutions. Regional training programmes on human rights and gender equality have been carried out for professionals from the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia.

Also, for the sixth consecutive year, the Institute is co-organising the Summer Academy for Young Professionals involving participants from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden. Another regional engagement concerns our ongoing collaboration with academic and civil society partners in the Nordic and Baltic States funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers.

In terms of bilateral cooperation, the Institute has previously been engaged with actors in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Uzbekistan (supporting the Academy of the General Prosecutor’s Office to develop a master’s degree programme in human rights and a training course on fair trial rights). We have also had partnerships with the NHRIs in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as with the Azerbaijan Young Lawyers’ Union.

Between 2010 and 2020, we cooperated with several academic institutions in Belarus through a comprehensive programme enhancing capacities to deliver high quality human rights education and research. Main results include the first Gender and Law courses run at universities in Belarus, and the establishment of a human rights centre producing multi-disciplinary research on topical human rights issues.

Since 1998, the Institute has cooperated with academic institutions in Turkey supporting human rights teaching and research capacity, and since 2018, with also municipalities to improve human rights work at local level by strengthening interaction between academic institutions, municipalities, and civil society organisations. As notable results, our seven partner municipalities have now passed City Council Decisions to become Human rights.

For more information about our activities and cooperations in Europe, please contact:

Zuzana Zalanova

Zuzana Zalanova

Director of the Europe Office

Phone: +46 46 222 12 57
E-mail: zuzana.zalanova@rwi.lu.se

Zuzana has been promoting human rights, good governance, and civic engagement in various capacities in Europe and Central Asia.

Prior to joining RWI’s Europe Office, Zuzana was in charge of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme in Ukraine with focus on civic and youth engagement. She previously coordinated rule of law programmes of the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO) in Mongolia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, supported regional human rights and justice initiatives of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Europe and Central Asia, and managed the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum, a platform of civil society actors from the EU and Russia. Zuzana holds a BA degree in Political Science, an MA degree in Security Studies, and a joint (BA and MA) degree in International Relations with a specialisation in Non-Profit Management from her studies in the Czech Republic (Charles University, University of Economics) and the United Kingdom (University of Reading).

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